Change
by multifandomhaven
Summary: Sophia Benson was rather unremarkable in every aspect aside from one thing - she could sense other people's thoughts and emotions. It was perfect, she was the only person who could truly be able to tell if Loki had changed, and so she was sent into the lion's den.
1. Chapter 1

Tony had debriefed the team before Thor and Loki had arrived. From what he'd told them Thor had defeated his sister and was now King of Asgard. He had agreed to pardon Loki for his help in reclaiming the throne on one condition - Loki repent for his actions on Midgard. Meaning he had to go to Earth and become one with his team of friends. Thor wanted Loki to be accepted among the Avengers then, and only then, would he be given free reign of their home planet once more.

Loki had been back on Earth for a few days when Tony enlisted the help of a woman he'd heard about through Natasha.

Sophia Benson was rather unremarkable in every aspect aside from one thing - she could sense other people's thoughts and emotions. It was perfect, she was the only person who could truly be able to tell if Loki had changed, and so she was brought in, also debriefed, then sent into the lion's den.

"Hello, Loki." The man across the table watched her with unwavering eyes. The cold, blue of them shocked her, chilled her to her very core, but she didn't look away. That's what he wanted - to be in control.

Instead, she gave him a smile, one she knew didn't quite meet her eyes, and sank into the chair.

"How have you been?"

Loki, the ever-so-cunning God of Mischief, gave his signature smirk, his eyes glinting. "Oh just _marvelous_. The quarters Stark has granted me are just so... quaint."

 _Small and disgusting, just like this pig-sty of a planet._

Sophia heard his thought as though he'd spoken them directly to her.

"Well, I'm glad you're pleased," she shot back, biting back a grin. "Has the team welcomed you into their home? Have you been working to claim your place as an official Avenger?"

Loki rolled his eyes and leaned back into his seat, his hands folded neatly on the table between them. "Oh dear, that has yet to happen, and I would be willing to wager that you and your friends will be long gone by the time I'm named an "official Avenger"."

 _Not that I'd even be willing to take on such a disgraceful title.  
_

"Oh come now, Loki," she chided, "as long as you prove your worth and they see that you've changed I think you've got a shot."

Loki gave her a dry laugh. "And what of you?"

Sophia raised an eyebrow at him. "Pardon me?"

Loki leaned forward a bit and spoke again, his voice rough. "Do you think me a changed man? Worthy of redemption?"

"I think you're very sarcastic," she said back, her voice stronger than he'd heard her use before. "I also think you're a man who wants to be good, but is afraid of being horrible at it. A man who wants to be accepted, whatever the circumstances may be."

Loki's mind was guarded as soon as the last word left her mouth. He narrowed his eyes at her and whispered, "telepath."

"I am," she confirmed. "I won't pry into your mind when it's not necessary, but I have been hired by the Avengers to track your progress. Make sure your mind is in the right place so we won't have a repeat of the... incident."

"Incident," Loki repeated, looking straight through her. He had drawn his hands back to his lap and now looked like he was coiled tight, ready to spring at the slightest movement from her. "Is that what they're calling it now?"

Sophia watched him. She tried to enter his mind, but he'd shut her out completely. "Some do. There are people who call it an attack, and some that try to forget it happened all together."

"I am not so easily forgotten though, am I?"

"No, you're not," she agreed. "You're not easily forgiven, either. You will have to work to get back on our good side. On humanity's good side."

"And what, pray tell, makes you think I'd even want to get back on the _good side_ ," he hissed, his eyes glistening. He bolted upright, his chair flung backwards by the force of his movement alone. "Who's to say I won't revert to prior behavior and slaughter you all where you stand?"

Sophia heard footsteps enter the room and turned to see Thor running toward them, his hammer in hand.

"Brother," he warned. "Stand down. Do not further complicate the situation."

Thor stood between Loki and Sophia, still sitting at the table. She stood slowly, noting Loki watching her every move. She could feel the searing, raw pain that coursed through his mind. He didn't want to harm her, only to shut her out - get her out of his mind.

Agents started filing into the room, making quick work to secure Loki in shackles. He never made a move to resist, he still only watched her.

 _"You're not a bad man,"_ Sophia spoke to only him. _"If you didn't want to change, Loki, you wouldn't have agreed to come here."_

She didn't know if he'd opened his mind to her, and he made no indication of even hearing her at all, so she allowed Thor to lead her to the room Tony was allowing her to stay in for the duration of her assignment. They made small talk along the way, but her mind kept flashing back to the man in shackles and the pain he kept hidden. She didn't feel remorseful for doing her job, but something other than caffeine kept her awake far longer than normal that night.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thanks to musicluver246 and darkangelynn5 for the reviews! I'm glad you enjoyed what I've written! To know that you've taken the time out of your day to leave a comment on something I've written seriously makes my day, so again, thanks so much!_

 _I have no real outline for this, I'm just kinda writing what comes to mind, so if there's something you'd like to see happen please visit me on Tumblr (I'm under the same name) and put in a request!  
_

 _So, due to my sudden desire to write some Loki lovin', here's chapter 2!_

* * *

Loki's therapy sessions continued and weeks bled into months, but still things remained the same.

He went in, barely spoke, listened as the little Midgardian woman went on a spill about changing his ways and doing the right thing, and then left in shackles. He didn't loathe going into the tiny white room anymore, in fact Sophia was really the only person in the compound he didn't outright despise. He had gotten to the point of where he liked hearing her voice, it calmed him.

He still didn't let himself think freely in her presence, but he was making progress. He no longer guarded his every thought from her.

Today, however, was different. He had a dream the night before, a vision almost. Thanos. The darkness and the pain. It was too much for him to even put on a front, it pulled him in every direction, stretched his patience thin. He didn't want to participate in the game of questions she liked to spring on him, but he sat still and listened - it was the only way to return to Asgard, he thought. He _had_ to sit through it. It would only last for a bit.

"How are you today, Loki?" Sophia asked, the same as always, as she walked toward him, a smile on her painted red lips. The clicking sound of her heels unnerved him a bit.

Loki sighed, straightening in his seat, and stared straight ahead. "Just _lovely_."

She raised a brow at him. "Are you sure? Something seems a little... off about you today."

Loki blinked at her, his face never changing. "I am well. Truly."

Sophia nodded and glanced down at the papers she'd been supplied with. "Right. Let's get started, then. Have you built any relationships with anyone in the compound?"

"No."

She glanced up from the sheet in her hand. "Have you had a conversation with anyone while you weren't on a mission? Just casual conversation, anything like that?"

"Other than my brother and The Vision, no."

"Have you made an attempt to connect with anyone else?"

"Not particularly."

Sophia wrote something onto her notepad. "And has anyone else reached out to you at all?"

She felt a flash of something from him. It wasn't anger but something a bit more mild - a little more personal.

"No."

His eyes went from watching the wall behind her when she began scratching something onto the notepad again. He let his gaze travel over her. Her eyes, her pretty little nose and lips and then, before she could be aware of his leering, he looked away, back to his place on the wall.

"I'm going to put in a request," Sophia said quietly, placing her pen down onto the table and giving him a tiny smile. "I'll run it by my superiors and hopefully by the next session we'll have heard back."

Loki's ears perked. "What sort of request do you plan on making, might I ask?"

"Well, you've been cooped up in the compound since you got here months ago. I figured you'd like to get out and stretch your legs. Maybe take you to a diner or out to a park." She looked up at him through her eyelashes. "What do you say?"

Loki sat quietly for a moment. "What's your plan, then? Take me out, get me to open up so that you can delve into the farthest corners of my mind?"

"No," she said gently. "I- no, Loki, it isn't like that at all."

" _Lies_ ," he hissed. "Do you forget who you're speaking to, darling? I am the God of Mischief. The God of Lies! Do not think for one moment that you can fool me."

She leaned back a bit, shocked by his outburst. "Loki, honestly, there are no ulterior motives here. I just thought you'd appreciate the change of scenery. If you don't want to go, that's fine."

Loki's breaths left him in puffs. He was anxious, his mind clouded.

"As much as you don't want to believe it, Loki, I'm on your side." Sophia said quietly. "Don't you trust me?"

Loki let out a breathless laugh, short and biting. "I trust no one."

The flash of hurt that shot through her didn't go unnoticed by him. He felt it the same as he would've felt a slap in the face.

"Never mind the trip, we'll continue as we have the entire time." She gulped and quickly gathered her papers, standing without the smiles and small jokes she usually tried to crack with him at the end of their sessions. "I'll see you next week."

Loki sat silently as she retreated, his body losing some of the stiffness it held as soon as the door closed.

 _Damn._


	3. Chapter 3

A/N - So here's part 3! Hope you enjoy!

Also, I'd like to thank StarLenora for the review!

* * *

To say that she was in pain would be an understatement. Her head was pounding and her left leg ached and burned as she tried to get comfortable. How long had she been in the same room now? A few days, no doubt. She closed her eyes and willed the contents of her stomach to stay just where they were and let a long, deep breath pass through her lips.

 _Damned superheroes with their archenemies or whatever they like to call them these days_ , she thought with a groan as she lay in her hospital bed.

It had been a normal day to begin with, Sophia was in her room in the compound fresh out of the shower. It was one of her days off and she was determined to enjoy it.

Her music was playing softly from her Bluetooth speaker and she was putting her lotion on, the ends of her hair still dripping wet. She brushed her teeth and cleaned her ears, staring intently into the mirror when she heard a loud bang.

Then there were more loud bangs.

Red lights went off above her and the computer voice, who she'd learned was named F.R.I.D.A.Y., let her know that the building was on lock down and had been breached.

Sophia didn't know if there was a protocol for this or not, so she did the only sensible thing she could think of doing and hurried into a pair of black shorts and whatever t-shirt it was that she slept in the night before. If she was going to die she was going to make sure that she wouldn't be found in the nude.

She grabbed her phone off the bathroom sink and sent a text to Nat before barricading herself in the closet.

It was physically exhausting sitting there, waiting to be found. After a while, she could only guess at how long she'd been in there, terrified and alone. Her hands shook a bit as she brought them up to wrap around herself. She tried counting backwards from one hundred, then mentally, she began singing a song that her mother used to sing to her when she was a child, something that kept her fears at bay.

 _Hush a bye  
Don't you cry  
Go to sleep my little baby  
When you wake  
You shall have  
All the pretty little ponies -_

The tinkling of glass brought her back to reality and she was suddenly hyper aware of the line of windows that looked out at the trees just out from her room. She tried to hold her breath and listen.

Boots thumped against the floor. She heard things being thrown and knocked around without hesitation.

"I'm not seein' anything, boss." A masculine voice said. "You sure he's even here?"

She heard a sharp, resounding slap and then a groan. "I know he's here! His buddy brought him back here to get help. We will find the asset or we'll kill everyone here until we get a location on him."

 _"What am I going to do?"_ Sophia thought frantically. Her eyes began to water when she realized she had no way of fighting back - being able to read their minds wouldn't be enough. _"I don't want to die in a closet."_

 _"You're not going to die."_

A gasp left her and she looked around the closet for the owner of the voice. She squinted through the darkness and saw nothing.

 _"Loki? Where are you?"_

 _"I'm just outside your room."_ He told her calmly. _"I sensed you from a few floors down. How many are in there?"_

 _"I'm not sure. Just, please, can you help me?"_ She plead with him. _"Please don't let me die in here."_

 _"I assure you, Lady Sophia, I will not allow that to happen. Now listen, I'm going to teleport into the room and get rid of the men, however many might be in there. Do not, under any circumstance, come out of that closet, do you understand?"_

Sophia nodded. _"Okay."_

A few seconds later she heard a crash and then another round of gunshots filled her ears - loud, quick and they seemed to last forever.

She stood as quietly as she could in the small space she had, and squeezed herself into the corner of the closet, covering her ears with her hands.

Sophia's eyes zeroed in on something small that flew through the door, leaving a tiny hole in it's wake. She felt it hit her in the leg. It stung - a sharp, throbbing pain in her thigh - and she grabbed her leg instinctively. Flashes of green seeped through the cracks of the door, filling the closet with warmth. She heard a few curses and then two dull thuds.

Gulping Sophia stood in the darkness, listening as footsteps came closer and closer to her. She winced as the pain in her leg began to intensify, going from what felt like a bruise being pressed on to a burning, hot ache.

The door flew open and she was greeted by Loki, fully clad in his armor and helm.

"You're bleeding," he said, staring at her leg in shock.

"What?" She looked down at her hands, covered in warm, sticky blood. "Oh my God."

Sophia stared at him for a moment, her breath leaving her in ragged puffs. Her eyes felt heavy and her ears began to ring. She saw Loki's mouth moving and him jumping toward her frantically before everything faded to black.


End file.
